Unrequited
by Kathryn0505
Summary: Eric tries to do what he believes is best for Pam but she takes it completely the wrong way. Old doubts resurface as the two finally talk about things that are long overdue.


A few years had passed since Eric's unfortunate illness with Hep V and as a whole everything couldn't be more perfect. New Blood was amazingly successful because it was not only a treatment for Hep V, but it was also the only synthetic blood available since Tru Blood had been contaminated and bankrupted. Fangtasia was also up and running well, so much so that he and Pam had discussed opening more of them.

They had recently decided that another club would open but they had not decided on the location. There was also the matter of who would run it. They did not have many vampires they trusted and so the project had been put off for a few weeks.

But even though business was good and life had settled into normalcy once more, Eric could not get completely comfortable. Pam's actions while he had Hep V continued to disturb him and he was left wondering if he needed to act.

He had always known that Pam was fiercely loyal to him. She felt a great deal of gratitude to him for taking her from a life she hated and for the support he showed her after her turning. But even knowing this, he had not expected her to fall apart the way she had.

She hadn't completely broken down while he'd been ill, but he'd seen it in her eyes beneath the surface. She was completely devastated by the thought of losing him and he had known when she put the gun to her chest that she was not lying when she said that if he died, she would as well.

The thought terrified him. He felt that by keeping her by his side for so long, he had prevented her from branching out and creating a life that was her own. She was too emotionally reliant on him, and he feared what she would do in the future should she ever find herself without him. As her maker, he needed to fix what he had done wrong.

He decided that in order to get her to stand on her own, there needed to be some distance between them. He just needed to figure out how to tell Pam.

TRUE BLOOD

Eric was acting shifty lately and it was making her nervous. This wasn't the fun kind of shifty where she knew he was actually planning a surprise she would enjoy but which he was trying to keep secret. This was the kind of shifty where he was hiding something from her that he knew she wouldn't like. Still, she was completely blindsided when he came clean.

They were sitting in Fangtasia going over the profits for the night when he began speaking.

"I think we should open the second bar," Eric began. "We might as well invest in something new while we have the chance and money."

"We have money coming out our asses, Eric," she responded.

"You can never have enough money when you're immortal," he said. He hesitated and her alarms bells went off. Finally he added, "I'd like you to go run it."

She put down the receipts she was holding. She didn't hear that properly. "What?"

"You may pick the location," he said, continuing with the receipts like he had said nothing of significance.

"I don't want to start a new bar _by myself_," she argued. "Why can't we both do it?"

"Do you trust the people we have on staff not to burn this one to the ground?" he asked. "If you would rather remain here I can go."

Pam's mouth hung open, not even sure what to say. They didn't really need a new bar and even if they did there was no reason they couldn't do it together. He was right when he implied the people around them were idiots but even if they _did_ burn the bar to the ground it wouldn't even make a dent financially. The only reason he was doing this was to get away from her. She felt herself begin to get emotional but tried to remain calm. "Eric, you can't even decorate your own home. I wouldn't trust you to decorate an entire bar."

"That's why I thought you the better choice," Eric said. She didn't say anything and wouldn't look at him. "If you think you'd have more fun with another type of business that would be fine. It might be nice to experiment," he added.

Pam's heart dropped in her chest. She'd heard Eric lie enough times in her life to know he was giving her a bunch of bullshit. She didn't know why he was doing this, but she wasn't going to let him see how upset she was.

"Bar's fine," she said, trying to keep the number of words to a minimum before she burst into unattractive tears.

"Good. Think of where you'd like to go," Eric said.

Pam nodded and pretended to be looking down at the papers on the desk in front of her so that she didn't have to look at him.

After a minute of focusing her energy on calming down she said, "I'm tired. I'm going to head home so I can go to ground a bit early."

"I'll see you there," he said. As he watched her leave, he thought that went surprisingly well.

TRUE BLOOD

Eric left about an hour and a half after Pam did. He locked everything up for the day and flew home to meet Pam.

He had seen during their talk that she wasn't _happy_ about it, but she hadn't been totally against it either. All in all it had gone better than he'd expected.

Until he got home.

He walked in the door and went to meet Pam in their room to see her things flung everywhere. Drawers were pulled out and jewelry was scattered across the dressers. A suitcase was also on the bed.

Pam stormed into the room from the walk in closet. She was an absolute mess.

The thing about Pam was that she claimed to have no feelings when really she was burying them down and ignoring them. It worked for a while but eventually things built up to a point where they could no longer be buried and everything spilled out of her. This was apparently one of those times.

"What are you doing?" he asked, eying the blood on her face and in her hair.

"Leaving," she said, shoving clothes into the huge suitcase.

"Why?"

"If you want to get rid of me so fucking badly, just be a man and fucking say so, Eric. You don't need to hide behind the idea of a new bar. Just tell me 'Pam, I'm sick of you. Fuck off.'"

He frowned and moved closer to where she was frantically tossing things in the suitcase. "I'm not sick of you, Pam."

But she had had over an hour on her own to think of every detail of the scenario and had leapt to her own conclusions. The more time that had passed, the more worked up she had gotten and she was past the point of logic.

"I'm sick of your lies, you asshole!" she screamed. "You want me gone? Fine! I'm gone."

"Pam," he tried to soothe and reached over to gently grab her arm.

"Don't fucking touch me!" she shrieked and he backed off.

"I do everything for you!" she sobbed. "But it's never enough. I don't know what else you want from me." Tears continued to pour from her eyes.

Eric had no idea where any of this was coming from. They had had a good past few years and her reaction was beyond anything he was expecting. Still, he saw Pam crying and in pain and moved to comfort her.

Just as he was about to embrace her she let out a growl, fangs extending, and smacked him right across the face.

He stumbled a bit, not because her hit had been that strong but because he was not expecting her actions. She had never tried to hurt him before. They were often playfully rough with each other but he could count on one hand the number of times he had really threatened her physically, the most recent being when he was questioning her about Russell. She, however, had never tried to harm him, knowing it would be futile and never being that angry with him. Her blow hadn't really hurt as she was so much younger, but the intent was there; he knew she hadn't been holding back and really had tried to injure him.

"I fucking hate you!" she sobbed. "I'm not going to run another business for you. I'm done doing everything for you and getting spit on in return." She zipped up the suitcase and picked it up off the bed.

He moved between her and the doorway, reluctant to let her leave when she was so out of control.

"Get the fuck out of my way."

"Where are you going?" he asked. She had no friends to go to and she had no property that he didn't co-own.

"Anywhere you're not!" she replied childishly. When he didn't move out of her way she added, "If you're going to stop me from leaving you're going to have to kill me."

He moved out of her way and instead followed her down the stairs and out of the house. She said nothing and instead clutched the suitcase to her before shooting up into the sky.

TRUE BLOOD

The only conclusion Eric could come to was that Pam had finally lost her mind. To Pam, however, her response made perfect sense. Eric was clearly trying to distance himself from her and it was the last slight she could take in a long list of transgressions. He was her entire world and it hurt more than she could bear that he so obviously did not think the same of her.

She made her way the short distance to an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods. She had stumbled upon it one day and thought it would be a good place to hide should they ever need sanctuary. It was nearly dawn so she would rest here for the day before deciding what to do next.

TRUE BLOOD

That night Pam woke up ready to put her plan into action. She had stashed a decent amount of money in the cabin. It wouldn't last her forever but she had her credit cards and bank accounts. While she and Eric ran the businesses together, they did have their own accounts. As they were not married and had no relationship recognized by law, he had no access to her money. She would be fine.

She rose for the night and cleaned up as best she could without a shower. She changed into something comfortable and walked out into the main part of the cabin so that she could leave before Eric found her. If he was even looking for her, that was.

She walked out of the room and turned a corner to find Eric standing there like a brick wall blocking her path. She actually gasped she found herself so startled.

How the hell had he found her so quickly? They were no longer linked since he released her.

"I followed you," he told her without her asking. "You may be pissed as hell at me but I wasn't going to let you leave half an hour before dawn without knowing you'd be safe."

"I'm surprised you care," she sassed, fright giving way to irritation.

"Of course I care," he said. He said it so sincerely and gave her such a look of confused concern that she found herself melting a little.

"Could have fooled me," she said and made to move past him. He blocked her way with his body in the tiny hallway.

"Eric," she warned.

"If you want to leave, I'm not going to stop you-"

"Then move," she interrupted.

"_But first_ I want you to tell me why," he finished. He'd debated with himself all day. He had been trying to send her away, but not for the reasons she believed. Still, if she was so mad and left, didn't that work, too? Should he try to stop her from doing what he wanted in the first place? He'd eventually decided that he couldn't let her leave like this, so angry and hurt.

"Why?"

"Because it's important to me," he explained patiently. "And because I think you've misunderstood."

She rolled her eyes and he moved out of the hallway to sit down on a beat up couch. He said nothing but something about the look on his face must have convinced her to join him, though she sat as far away from him as possible.

"You obviously want me to go, Eric, so I'm leaving. There, explanation over, goodbye," she said and stood up.

"I _was_ trying to send you away," he confessed and she stopped in her tracks. "But not for the reasons you think."

Her whole body deflated, having no more energy for anger. "Then why?" she whispered miserably.

"I feel like you're too dependent on me, Pam," he said. "I was hoping that with some time apart you might find a life away from me. That way, if anything ever happened to me… you'd be okay. You'd want to live on."

Pam hesitated. She wasn't sure she believed him but moved back over to sit beside him anyway.

"I don't want a life away from you," she said.

"I know you don't. That's the problem."

"It's not a problem," she argued. "Why does it matter?"

"Because I need to know you'll be okay if I meet the true death."

"It's always about what you want!" she angrily replied. "You wanted Sookie so much you were going to die for her. You wanted to kill Sarah so you weren't going to take the cure. You wanted to fuck that French skank so we ended up in a fucking video store in Louisiana for twenty goddamn years. Now you want me to be more independent so you are sending me away to be miserable? What about me, Eric?" Her voice cracked. "You're everything to me," she whispered. "But I'm just along for the ride, aren't I?"

Eric was surprised by the depth of despair he felt radiating from her. She truly believed everything she was saying.

"Pam, you are my only family," he said. "You're important to me, too."

"You have Willa," she bit out. "You'd be fine if I died. You can make more vampires."

"Willa may be my progeny but she has not proven her loyalty and love as you have. _You _are my family," he insisted.

"You never told me about Nora. About your family," Pam said. "There's so much you keep from me."

"I kept Nora a secret to protect you," he said.

Pam was silent for a moment as she leaned back against the couch. "I wish I could believe that," she finally whispered.

"Pam…" he started but didn't know what to say.

"I know you would do anything to protect me," she admitted.

"I don't know what you want here, Pam," he confessed.

"I don't either," she replied, tears falling silently. Her emotions were so battered that she had confused herself.

"I want to feel like you love me even half as much as I do you," Pam finally answered. "That you trust me."

"I do," he said.

"I don't believe that," she cried. Eric knew she was mad but he had no idea she was actually doubting her place in his life and in his heart. This wound must have been festering for a long time and he hadn't even noticed. It killed him that his progeny was questioning his feelings for her.

"Pam," he tried to get her attention but she leaned forward and put her head in her lap, shaking her head. Perhaps he had finally pushed her too far; they had never had an argument as serious as this.

"Pam, please," he tried again and she raised her head finally when she heard the crack in his voice.

She was shocked to see that he had started crying as well. It freaked the shit out of her.

"Eric," she breathed, unnerved to see him so emotional.

"I don't know how to fix this," he said. He sounded so unsure and despondent that she automatically reached out to embrace him.

He gathered her up in his arms and cried into her hair.

She pulled back to look into his eyes. "It's going to be okay," she soothed. In a way it made her feel better to see him crying. She didn't like that he was hurting, but seeing him have such an emotional reaction to her own feelings made her feel like maybe he did mean what he was saying.

"I want us to be okay," he said, pulling himself together.

"We will be."

"We never talked about everything that happened," he said. "I didn't know you needed to so badly and I'm sorry. But I _do _love you and trust you." He took her face in his hands so he could look directly into her eyes. "I am going to make it up to you," he said.

She nodded her head, suddenly questioning how she could ever have doubted him. He kissed her forehead and pulled her close once more.

True, he had done questionable things in the past and he had hurt her many times. But he had done much more good for her than all the other people who had ever been in her life combined. She'd let her old insecurities flare up and she'd hurt Eric in the process. She hugged him tighter at the thought.

"Will you come home?" he asked.

She immediately nodded and Eric kissed her neck.

He realized that he hadn't really accomplished what he had set out to do. He had wanted to make her have a life without him, but it wasn't really fair that he make that choice for her. She was right when she said he wanted her to live on for him but if moving away made her unhappy, what was the point? Maybe at some point she would venture out, but why force it now?

Instead he vowed to treat her as more of a partner. He was still her maker, but he obviously wasn't doing her any favors by keeping her in the dark. He had also made some mistakes in the past and would have to try to avoid making those again.

But he was willing to try. He'd do anything for her.


End file.
